We started off this day in the early morning hours (Well, we had to meet everyone @ 8:15; that's early to some of us). Our mission for the morning was to entertain the Dutch youth with a special program of music, drama, and devotions. Dan and I were in charge of beginning with a game and leading the singing. The game we choose was pretty familiar to both our kids and the Dutch youth. It was a version of the hand slapping game, "Down by the banks...." All the kids seemed to enjoy going fast and slapping each other. I guess that is another similarity. While the hand slapping went around the circle, Dan played some music. When the music stopped, the last person to get slapped had to same something nice (or compliment) someone who was not from their country. Of course, all the kids had great things to say about each other.

After the game we sang some songs in Dutch (Dan and I actually learned the Dutch words and taught them to our kids), so we can bring that back home for you to hear as well! We also sang some familiar favorites. Then Debbie led our skit group in performing the play that many of you did in church called "How to Build a Bridge".For those of you who don't know, it does a great job of illustrating our mission of bringing Christ to people through friendships. Next, Sarah led devotions. She talked about a bridge builder in the Bible, a little slave girl, who was kind of a nobody. This girl was not important, but she cared enough about Nahum to show him the way to the Lord.

At the conclusion of the meeting, it was time to bike (something they do a lot of here). We went to Smerdiek for a tour of the town hall and some more explanation about the region. Following our return trip and some lunch (typical mayo. And cheese sandwich) many of us were able to go souvenir shopping with our hosts. In the evening we spent time with our host families.